New York rolls out new tourism ad campaign

NEW YORK (CNN) --Mayor Rudolph Giuliani launched a new public service advertising campaign Thursday to "salute the spirit of New York" and encourage visitors to the city during the holiday season.

"The New York Miracle: Be a Part of It" is the slogan adopted for the campaign, which features celebrities associated with New York. Woody Allen, Henry Kissinger, Barbara Walters, Yogi Berra, Ben Stiller, Kevin Bacon, Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal are among the notables participating.

Six 30-second television commercials were previewed at the mayor's press briefing, as Allen, Bacon, and Walters watched.

The first commercial featured Woody Allen figure skating on the famous ice rink at Rockefeller Center. His face was digitally "morphed" onto the frame of an agile figure skater performing triple-axles and spins. Allen quips in the spot, "That was the first time I put on ice skates in my life."

Another spot features Kissinger, with the help of a stunt double, sliding face-first into home plate after running the bases at Yankee Stadium. At the end, the 78-year-old statesman and former secretary of state stands up, brushes the dirt off his dark suit, and asks, "Derek Who?" At that moment you hear a greenskeeper shout, "Hey, you, get outta here!"

Also in the spots, Barbara Walters auditions for the Broadway hit "42nd Street," Yogi Berra conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (asking "who's this Harmonic guy"), and Ben Stiller and Kevin Bacon are featured as menu items at a New York diner ("Waiter, I'd like Ben Stiller with a side of bacon").

The last television commercial shown at Thursday's press briefing features Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro as a turkey-pilgrim duo riding on a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Crystal, dressed as the turkey, tries to convince DeNiro to switch costumes. At one point, parodying a famous line from DeNiro's 1973 movie "Taxi Driver," Crystal asks DeNiro, "Are you gobbling at me? Are you gobbling at me?"

Giuliani appears at the end of each of the commercials and says, "The New York miracle. Be a part of it."